


задушить огонь [Smother the Fire]

by Chibi_Twan



Series: Not Fast Enough, but I'll Never Give Up [3]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: Apocalypse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Charles Xavier is Confused, Gen, POV Charles, Peter Maximoff (Mentioned) - Freeform, musings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27298330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibi_Twan/pseuds/Chibi_Twan
Summary: After all is said and done with the Apocolypse, while still grateful, Charles is confused about how Peter could have known to come to the mansion before it exploded... he's confused about Peter, in general.[A One-shot in the series]
Relationships: Hank McCoy & Charles Xavier, Peter Maximoff & Charles Xavier, Pietro Maximoff & Charles Xavier
Series: Not Fast Enough, but I'll Never Give Up [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981781
Comments: 2
Kudos: 88





	задушить огонь [Smother the Fire]

“Run it back, slower this time.”

Hank replayed the surveillance footage from the mansion, which took them a few days to find in the wreckage. Charles leaned toward the screen, Hank mimicking his movements, as a barely visible blur appeared mere just as the explosion went off. They watched in silence as, one by one, Alex, Hank, Moria, and Raven were all taken away to safety. 

“It’s him…” Charles muttered, as the clip ends, “But how did he know to come here?”

“I’m… not sure,” Hank frowned, “From what the others told me, they never saw Peter in the mansion or after the explosion either… One moment they were all inside, and the next, they were outside watching the mansion explode. Alex says that he and a few other students wound up in the lake.”

“...Could you play it again? Slow it down some more and focus on the point of the explosion.”

Neither of them speaks once the recording stops, having reached the end of the clip. They didn’t know what to expect when they decided to review the mansion’s footage; maybe see Peter running around and getting everyone out, but that’s not what they saw. Instead, they watched as a blur that not even the cameras could pick up in slow motion ran faster than either of them thought possible through the mansion. Grabbing all of the students, sometimes one at a time and other times, grabbing multiple people at once. The footage from outside of Cerebro was exactly what Charles had been dreading yet somehow worse as well. They watched with bated breath as the explosion immediately billowed out into the corridor, flames engulfing Alex Summers until his whole body was hidden from view. Charles stiffened as Hank gasped in shock when the silver blur ran _into the flames_ , pulling Alex out and out of the mansion before coming back to grab Hank.

It was easy to figure out why Peter had tossed Alex into the lake after pulling him out of harm’s way.

When all was said and done, after the fight was over and Hank was left tending to the wounded, they noticed how pink Alex’s skin was. As though he had spent hours out in the sun without any protection. Regardless, thinking back on it now, Charles knows how lucky Alex was. How lucky he was not to have burns covering his entire body, how lucky they all were that Peter arrived when he did.

Charles was grateful, overly so, but that did not change the curiosity eating away at him. How did Peter know to show up when he did? If he didn’t know… then why was he there? Why didn’t he stick around afterward? Why run off and leave the staff and the students all wondering how they made it out alive? Another thought plagued him. Erik told him about the near-miss in the woods of Poland, how _someone_ (Erik explained that he hadn't recognized Peter at first) had saved his wife and daughter, knocking out all of the policemen and even running each of them, one by one, all the way to New York. Erik didn’t realize until almost an hour later, after everyone arrived at the mansion, an hour spent calming his family and trying to figure out if they were in danger or not, that the fake passports from his cabin, along with his stash of American money was sitting in a small bag, tied to his belt.

After paying for a motel room despite Charles offering to let them stay at the school, and waiting for Magda and Nina to fall asleep, Erik reached out to him, and Charles admitted that he has not spoken to Peter in weeks.

They’ve kept in touch over the past ten years, Peter coming to visit the mansion once in a blue moon but more often after that track incident. However, every offer to stay at the mansion was shot down, as was the job opportunity to teach when Charles decided to reopen the school. Instead, Hank, Alex, and himself were the only teachers. Which worked out well enough since there were only a few students, and even then, they didn’t stay at the school full time. After the school reopened, Peter still came to visit, using his speed to help clean the mansion and set everything up without Charles asking him to do so. Even once that was completed, Peter still came over to play with the children. Charles accidentally bore witness to multiple instances where Peter was comforting one of the students after the stress of being a mutant became too much for them to handle. He never sought to listen in. He would never invade his students’ privacy like that. It was just every time a student’s emotions spiked or had a panic attack, Charles felt it. He would always seek the students out to help any way he can, but Peter always beat him to it. However, over the years, as more and more students arrived, Peter’s visits tampered off. 

At first, Charles feared it was due to Peter growing uncomfortable at the mansion.

Then he realized after a week or two passed without any visits from Peter that almost every student knew Peter somehow and was asking after him. If the students were so comfortable with Peter’s presence, Peter must’ve felt content in his mansion visits. Charles asked Hank and Alex their thoughts on the matter, but neither knew what kept Peter away. Charles thought that Peter might’ve grown tired of running from his home all the way to the mansion, or perhaps he had done something to upset him… He had no chance to figure it out. After an additional week had passed without Peter visiting, he suddenly started showing back up every couple of days to help out and keep the students’ company. Charles let the matter drop, and it wasn’t until this past week that Peter had started avoiding his trips to the mansion again. He has no way of knowing what Peter’s been up to or how he knew Erik would need his help in Poland or how he knew about the explosion at the mansion when none of them knew it would happen either.

Charles immediately remembered Jean’s nightmare, the devastation, and destruction… however, the images she projected that night had nothing to do with the destruction of the mansion.

With the ongoing issue with the mutant En Sabah Nur and the battle that followed, Charles had no open opportunity to talk to Peter about anything. 

Though he supposed he could discuss it now, Peter was stuck at the mansion until further notice. Hank wanted to keep Peter within sight to make sure he didn’t try using his speed until his leg was fully healed. All of the students who had homes to return to left days ago would remain gone until the mansion was rebuilt. Charles wasn’t sure if any of the parents would feel comfortable letting their children come back here, but he had hope. The construction of the mansion was fast-going. Over half the mansion was back to normal, and it had only been five days since the explosion. Everything running more smoothly now that Erik and Jean were helping with rebuilding. Peter had tried to help, but Hank, along with everyone else at the mansion, made sure that Peter barely got the chance to leave his room.

Ororo was the one who sat at Peter’s bedside the most, other than Hank, but each of them took turns sitting with the speedster and making sure he rested.

Scott and Erik seemed to be the only ones who felt odd “babysitting” Peter, but after the first three escape attempts, they understood why it was important they stayed in the room and kept an eye on him. Now was as good a time as any to talk with Peter… Only Charles couldn’t bring himself to make his way to Peter’s room.

They needed to talk, especially about what happened during the fight with En Sabah Nur, but Charles didn’t want to make Peter feel cornered.

Their talk would have to wait until Peter was fully healed.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a small one-shot I wrote as a filler. I have waaay too many stories planned for this series and this isn't supposed to be published yet but here we are. Technically this should be the fourth or fifth story in the series but I wrote this out before the others. Basically, this takes place after Peter went back in time and rewrote the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, and X-Men: Apocolypse.


End file.
